During the 10th annual conference of the Nigerian Association of Orthodontists (NAO), the NAO, has stated that all over the country, there were only 41 registered orthodontist for the over 180 million persons in the country, The immediate past President of the association, Prof. Olayinka Otuyemi, has said that the dearth of orthodontists was affecting treatment of patients, hence the need for steps to be taken to increase the number. According to him, Brazil with about 190 million people has over 250,000 orthodontists, whereas Nigeria has a paltry 41 of them. “We need to develop capacity and government really needs to come in to improve facilities for training because most of our hospitals in terms of facilities are not doing well,” he said. Olayinka, who spoke on Contemporary Management of Adult Orthodontic Patients, said over the years, the type of patient seeking orthodontic treatment has changed from adolescent patients to adult patients, adding that globally the percentage of adults seeking treatment has increased to 25 per cent.
“We need to understand ways of treating adult patients, as they are quite different from adolescents in terms of behavioral, managerial and the problem they are having,” he added.
Also, the General Secretary of the association, Dr. Nkiru Folaranmi, said awareness and training of post graduate students was needed despite the fact that dentists find it difficult to settle in Nigeria.